2026 World Cup Debutants: Uzbekistan’s Rise from Soviet Shadows ft. Donat Iskanderov

Last Friday's 2026 World Cup draw in Washington DC kicks off a new mini-series running on the FootPol Podcast this season, about debutant nations heading to next year’s tournament. In this first episode, we turn to Uzbekistan — one of the most intriguing first-timers on the global stage. Guy Burton and Francesco Belcastro are joined by Donat Iskanderov, a Central Asian groundhopper from Tashkent, to unpack how Uzbeki